A Philippine police officer who tried to persuade residents of a mining camp to move to safety as a powerful typhoon approached on Tuesday said they refused to leave and a day later the storm triggered a huge landslide that buried dozens of people.
Police Senior Inspector Heherson Zambale said in an interview that he was stunned after learning that the massive landslide had covered a chapel and bunkhouses in the mountain village where he and other officials had met with some of the victims a day before the tragedy struck on Saturday last week.
Typhoon Mangkhut, the most powerful storm to hit the Philippines this year, left at least 81 people dead and dozens of others missing, mostly in the avalanche in the gold-mining town of Itogon in Benguet province.
Photo: AP
The storm later blew on to Hong Kong and southern China, where it caused more deaths and damage.
Zambale said he and other local officials tried to convince the villagers, mostly small-scale miners and their families, to move to an evacuation center as the typhoon approached.
A villager officer who accompanied Zambale used a megaphone to warn people that Mangkhut was extraordinarily powerful and everybody should leave, he said.
The villagers told the police officer that they thought the chapel and nearby bunkhouses were on stable ground, and that they would only move away if the storm became severe, he said.
Zambale said he saw about 15 villagers outside the chapel and bunkhouses.
“Some were smiling and there were some who were just quiet. Some were listening to us,” he said.
Police photographs showed the officers in hard hats and light green raincoats talking with the villagers outside of what appears to be the concrete chapel and nearby bunkhouse, with piles of sandbags nearby.
Part of the mountain slope, covered in green foliage, can be seen behind the buildings.
Zambale, who has battled insurgents and criminals for eight years, said he had a bad feeling about the clearing where the buildings stood near a river, surrounded by tall mountains.
Some villagers heeded the warnings and left before the typhoon struck.
“But many were left behind,” Zambale said.
Rescuers have recovered 14 bodies from the avalanche and at least 58 other people remain missing, he said.
Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan on Monday said it was unlikely any of the missing were still alive, although rescuers continued to search.
Police Commander Rolando Nana said a special police unit scanned the landslide-hit area with radar that can detect heartbeats, but found no sign of life.
As more than 300 rescuers, including police and soldiers, used shovels and picks to search for the missing, Zambale said he still remembers the faces of the villagers he tried to convince to flee.
“I really feel sad, I cannot describe the emotion,” he said. “It’s not only the people who don’t listen. They have children, wives, elderly parents who will all suffer.”
South Korea yesterday said that it would lift COVID-19 restrictions on social gatherings next week as the country prepares to switch to a “living with COVID-19” strategy amid rising vaccination levels. A new panel established this week is drawing up a plan for a gradual lifting of curbs, aiming to lift restrictions and reopen the economy next month on the expectation that 80 percent of the adult population will be fully vaccinated. From Monday, the South Korean government is to allow gatherings of up to four unvaccinated people and ease operating-hour restrictions imposed on venues such as restaurants, cafes and cinemas, South
‘AVOIDABLE SITUATION’: After being tortured in his home country, a Sri Lankan and his family are at risk of deportation from the UK, despite his academic fellowship A scientist conducting groundbreaking research into renewable energy is facing deportation with his family to Sri Lanka, where he was tortured, after receiving contradictory information about his case from the British Home Office. Nadarajah Muhunthan, 47, his wife, Sharmila, 42, and their three children, aged 13, nine and five, went to the UK in 2018 after Muhunthan, who is working on thin-film photovoltaic devices used to generate solar power, was given a prestigious Commonwealth Rutherford fellowship. The award allowed him to reside to the UK for two years to research and develop the technology. His wife obtained a job caring for
Black ticks on their foreheads marking the eye to be operated on, dozens of patients in green overalls wait in line, beneficiaries of a pioneering Indian model that is restoring sight to millions. With a highly efficient assembly line model inspired by McDonald’s, the network of hospitals of the Aravind Eye Care System performs about 500,000 surgeries a year — many for free. More than one-quarter of the world’s population, or about 2.2 billion people, have a vision impairment, and 1 billion of the cases could have been prevented, WHO data shows. There are about 10 million blind people in India, and
A top global law firm is no longer representing the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in seeking the removal of a Tiananmen memorial from its campus after it came under heavy criticism in the US for helping China purge dissent, the Washington Post reported. Mayer Brown is the latest international company to face pressure over how its actions in China contradict its more progressive statements in the West. The 8m high Pillar of Shame sculpture by Danish artist Jens Galschiot has stood on HKU’s campus since 1997, the year the city was handed back to China. It features 50 anguished faces and tortured
RSS